So, how should the JREF avoid paying the prize money without exposing the fraud? How could they expose the fraud without humiliating the girl and her parents. How could the humiliation be exclusively directed at the parents?
I Want Randi's Million
- Thread starter Cyphermage
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- million
I don't believe it can or should.
My point is that talking about "how could you embarrass the poor little child in this way" is silly and inappropriate; the parents were using the child as a stalking horse in an attempt to defraud. I believe it's a standard "gypsy" trick to teach small children to steal valuable items from a store, on the assumption that the storekeeper would be more lenient with a six-year old than with an adult caught stealing the same watch.
I actually favor the scenario where the six-year old has made an innocent trick and the parents, lured by the smell of money, have eagerly supported her claim, and effectively closed their eyes or mind to the likely cheating that the child is doing. the child is now caught in her trickery because she cannot own up to her parents what she has been doing, and she has to go on performing the trick.
In this case both parents and child have something on their conscience, but the child being a child removes responsibility from her shoulders.
Adults can very easily fall for trickery by children because for some reason it is assumed that children do not lie! See the British scientists who were fooled by cutlery-bending youngsters some years ago!
In this case both parents and child have something on their conscience, but the child being a child removes responsibility from her shoulders.
Adults can very easily fall for trickery by children because for some reason it is assumed that children do not lie! See the British scientists who were fooled by cutlery-bending youngsters some years ago!